SCARS OF DRACULA

Another full-blooded and richly imbued horror score from the Hammer master, James Bernard.

By Randall D. Larson     December 30, 2000

Arguably the most important series of horror music recordings in the last half-century, GDI's release of complete original soundtracks from Hammer's horror and science fiction films finally brings these potent compositions to our home stereo systems in a most satisfying manner. Producer Gary Wilson continues to mine the treasure trove of Hammer's musical legacy, and these gorgeously packaged productions permit the first genuine appreciation of these scores, apart from hearing them with their respective films. Digitally restored from the original recordings, GDI has done a marvelous job. The sound quality of these releases seems to be equal to or better than what was heard in theatres.

SCARS OF DRACULA follows the trend of James Bernard's TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA (released earlier this year by GDI), moving away from the all-terror-all-the-time modus operandi of the composer's quintessential HORROR OF DRACULA and DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS scores by including a great deal of romantic music set in contrast to Dracula's relentless terror tonalitiessomething that very much appealed to the composer. The action material is familiarderived intentionally from the previous films and given a cohesive symbiotic and thematic connection. The main Dracula theme, used minimally, is the same 3-note 'DRAC-u-la' ostinato that Bernard created for HORROR OF DRACULA, which remains the terrible pulse of the vampire's presence or influence. The Dracula-chase music is the same fast and furious strings-timpani-brass-and-snare pattern used so successfully in his former DRACULA scores, which drives the action with a greater sense of onrushing peril and passion than moviegoers had ever heard previously. Matching this 3-note motif is a new Dracula theme of 5 notes. Whereas the original ostinato captured the terrible and relentless essence of Dracula, the monster, this new theme more subtly and eloquently describes the monster's sardonic cruelty.

Bernard's chase music is at its best ('The Errant Coach') with quickening pipes from woodwinds and brass, joined by timpani, that create a claustrophobic sense of rising apprehension and horror that becomes almost unbearable, finally crashing with a languid descent into the rest of the orchestra, resolute and spent, the a corpse falling into grass. In 'A Sinister Greeting,' Bernard's rapid-pulsing chase music is contrasted with quiet woodwinds that build a spooky mood, until the clarity of the brass emerges with a suggestion of the Dracula music.

'The Villagers Revenge' is a tasty rhythmic cue for violins and percussion, accompanying the march of the vengeful villagers upon Dracula's castle in an attempt to rid their countryside of the resurrected vampire. This cue sets the stage for a brimful of dynamic DRACULA material in 'Burning Castle Dracula,' which follows. But its energetic chords meet their musical comeuppance with 'Slaughter in the Church,' which takes the same material and gives it a particularly tragic tone when the villagers return from their raid on the Dracula's castle to find that the Count has murdered all of their wives while they were away. This short cue begins with growing chords of tension, layers of strings rising, rising, then crashing down as reality settles on the men, resolving with an evil, malevolent statement of the omnipresent DRAC-u-la theme that takes responsibility for the deed.

Bernard's rhapsodic love theme is a plaintive melody for strings that is first associated with the villagers terrorized by Dracula, but later becomes a love theme for Sarah and Simon, the film's protagonists. It's a lyrical melody for violin over harp ('The Search for Paul') which, in its descending counter-melody, maintains a profound sense of melancholy and ominousness even at its most lyrical. It plays well against the swirling horror-chase music ('Sarah and Simon Arrive At The Castle,' 'Dracula and Sarah'). The theme was shortened for its appearances in the film, due to timing restrictions in the action, but we are able to hear the completely developed version of the theme on the CD. (Incidentally, a resplendent, extended development of the theme, at 5:22, was recorded by the City of Prague Philharmonic for Silva's 1996 release, The Devil Rides Out: Music for Hammer Films by James Bernard.)

The extended 'Paul's Nightmare Begins' (6:16) is delicious music macabre. Opening with a 5-note ascent-and-descent phrasing (derived from the love theme but here played most malevolently), the cue rises in tone and rhythm and volume, emerging into a tornado of brass, strings, and thundering timpani. The cue revisits this sensation, as Paul's nightmare subsides into pensive tonality and suspenseful patterns, rising again into dynamic dissonance and resolving brutally with quick pulses of the chase music. Nobody does cataclysmic horror music better than Bernard, and even here, almost 15 years after his seminal HORROR score, the composer is still at his bloody best, capturing the relentless, vicious passion of the malignant Count Dracula better than any other composer. Give a listen to 'Dracula Prevails' and 'Wings of Death' for two more terrific examples.

SCARS was Bernard's last true DRACULA score (his music for THE LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES, also known as THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA, among other releaser-imposed titles, would revisit the subject again but is really tangential to Hammer's official DRACULA series), and brought the Gothic cycle of Hammer's Dracula series to a fitting close.

Hans Salter, Frank Skinner, and the other creators of monster music in the Universal Music Department of the 1930s and 1940s defined monster music with their inventive, European musical traditions. But it took Hammer and James Bernard to transfuse the entire genre (and its music) into something richer and more full-blooded than it had ever had before. Along with the advent of color images, Bernard brought vivid coloration (especially a bright wash of crimson) to the music. These vibrant and kaleidoscopic scores have waited too long for their hues and patterns to appear on disc, and are most welcome.

The CD's 20-page booklet, brimming with color photos and foreign poster reproductions, includes an introduction by the film's director, Roy Ward Baker, and extensive notes about the making of the film, by Marcus Hearn; little commentary is included on the nature of the score, unfortunately. A cue-by-cue analysis, such as has been included on other of GDI's Hammer releases, would have been quite a benefit.

SCARS OF DRACULA: Music by James Bernard. GDI GDICD014 (U.K.), 23 tracks; 53:03